#ASGWorthy: Story’s hot start leads NL shortstops

The 2016 Esurance MLB All-Star Ballot has been released, and while the season is still young, it’s never too early to start evaluating candidates. Many have already begun to stand out, while others are sure to hit their stride in the coming months leading up to the 2016 All-Star Game presented by Mastercard on July 12 at San Diego’s Petco Park.

As fans cast their votes for who they deem worthy of 2016 All-Star status, MLB.com is looking position by position through each league, continuing today with the National League shortstops.

• Cast your Esurance All-Star ballot #ASGWorthy players

The stalwarts Veteran Asdrubal Cabrera has been a nice pickup for the Mets thus far after signing a two-year contract. Cabrera, an American League All-Star with Cleveland in 2011 and ’12, hasn’t shown a ton of power (one home run) but is batting .301 with a .363 on-base percentage through 20 games.

The Giants’ Brandon Crawford enjoyed a breakout season in 2015, adding a potent bat (21 homers, .782 OPS) to his usual slick fielding and making his first All-Star roster. The 29-year-old came out of the gate hot this year but has a .601 OPS with no homers in his past 17 games.

The fast startersJhonny Peralta is the Cardinals’ shortstop on the All-Star ballot, but injuries to him and a couple of others opened the door for 25-year-old rookie Aledmys Diaz. The Cuba native, who signed with St. Louis two years ago, has authored one of the hottest starts to a career that baseball has ever seen. Before a rare hitless game on Thursday, he led all qualifiers in average (.468), on-base percentage (.500) and slugging (.823). While Diaz does not appear on the ballot, fans can write in his name.

Trevor Story passed Albert Pujols to set an NL rookie record on Wednesday when he hit his ninth home run of April. That put him one …

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